The Importance of Pretend Play for Children with Autism and Other Special Needs

Imaginative play may be elusive for the youngest autistic children, but it has an important place in your child's life.

Like many other kids on the autism spectrum, my son Brooks never developed imaginative play naturally.

Since my husband and I are both writers, this was a particularly devastating part of our son's diagnosis. He might grow up into someone who never recognizes the intrinsic value of a good story. On top of that, we knew that the kind of symbolic play that eluded Brooks was a major social-emotional milestone, and that without it, his social connection to the rest of the world would be compromised.

When our therapists patiently explained to us that these skills could be taught, I was a huge skeptic. I mean, I understood that you could teach Brooks to play with his teddy bear. Step by step, you could show him how to hug the bear, give the bear a turn in a game, but it never sat well with me that he didn't have a natural inclination to want to play with the bear. And without that, I worried that his imaginative play would always be robotic and "learned."

Our therapists continued to impress upon me that it wasn't true that Brooks lacked a natural inclination. His imagination was simply stalled and had to be kick-started, just like his speech and all his other delays. Although I was still plenty worried, I tried to be positive. And sure enough, baby step by baby step, Brooks began to play.

When he was a toddler, I remember watching him with tears in my eyes when for the first time, on his own and without any prompting, he took a toy car and zoomed it across the floor. It was then that a tiny part of me stopped worrying, and throughout the years, many similar incidents have transformed me into someone who no longer worries that her autistic son will lack a healthy imagination. There's now simply too much evidence to the contrary.